The present invention relates generally to chairs having extendable and retractable footrests and, more particularly, to reclining chairs of the type having a linkage arrangement interconnecting a seat structure and footrest for coordinated movement between reclining and non-reclining positions.
Reclining chairs, or as more commonly referred to in the art simply as "recliners," have been well known for many years and have become one of the most popular and common items of residential furniture. As a result, considerable activity has been devoted over the years to the design and production of various modifications and improvements in recliners, resulting in a considerable diversity in the particular structures and manners of operation thereof. For instance, the simplest and perhaps most common recliner construction provides a stationary chair frame, a seat structure having a seat member and seat back rigidly connected with one another, a footrest, and a relatively simple lazy tong type linkage mechanism mounted on the chair frame and supporting the seat structure and footrest for coordinated movement thereof between a non-reclining position with the seat structure generally upright and the footrest retracted and a reclining position with the seat structure rearwardly tilted to some degree and the footrest extended forwardly at a spacing therefrom. In more advanced forms of recliner linkages, the seat member and seat back are movable with respect to one another and provide several different possible chair positions. Some recliner constructions further provide the capability for rocking motion, as well as reclining, of the seat structure.
Despite the great diversity of conventional recliner structures, substantially all recliners have in common the provision of a footrest movable as aforementioned from a retracted position adjacent or within the chair frame and an extended position spaced forwardly from the seat structure. The reclining motion of many of the simpler forms of recliner linkages is actuated merely by occupant-exerted force rearwardly against the seat back of the seat structure to cause the footrest to be thrust forwardly and the seat structure to recline rearwardly and, in reverse, by the opposite occupant-exerted force on the seat structure and/or downwardly against the footrest. Some of the more advanced forms of recliner linkages provide an occupant-operated handle as part of the linkage arrangement to require handle movement to move the recliner into its reclining position as well as to return it to its non-reclining position.
In recent years, the design of the aforementioned relatively simple forms of recliner linkages have come under attack by various consumer groups as a result of a number of accidental injuries, as well as a few deaths, to young children each of whom were accidentally entrapped by the footrest of a recliner of this sort when the footrest in its extended position unexpectedly closed under the child's weight while playing unsupervised on the recliner. While recliners of the more advanced type having handle-operated reclining linkages do not suffer the same problem in that the simple exertion of force on the footrest when in its extended position is not alone sufficient to actuate closing movement of the footrest, such recliners nevertheless pose potential hazards to children as well as adults due to the open space created between the seat structure and the footrest of such recliners when in a reclining position.
In response to this apparently growing problem, the American Furniture Manufacturers Association and the Consumer Product Safety Commission recently issued a joint warning to owners of recliners concerning the potential safety hazard to young children playing on reclining chairs. Of course, warnings in themselves will not prevent further accidents and therefore a substantial need exists in the furniture industry for a satisfactory improvement in the construction of recliners to alleviate this potential danger. To explore this possibility, the AFMA has established a special committee to attempt to define an industry safety standard for recliner manufacturers.
It is accordingly a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved safety mechanism for incorporation in conventional recliner structures to prevent accidental entrapment of persons or objects in the normal spacing existing between a recliner footrest and seat structure in its reclining position.